Amazon River
by gwenn0
Summary: River was Iara. And Jayne wouldn’t have a choice but be Jaguarari. Based on the Brazilian indigenous legends of Iara and Jaguarari. Written for A Copper for a Kiss August Challenge.


_Title:_ Amazon River

_Date:_ August 26th, 2008

_Word Count:_ 2,000

_Summary:_ River was Iara. And Jayne wouldn't have a choice but be Jaguarari. Based on the Brazilian indigenous legends of Iara and Jaguarari.

_A Copper for a Kiss_ August Challenge: a Rayne Fable/Myth/Fantasy/Fairy Tale.

Prompt: _Bath_

Rated PG – some nudity, and Jayne's thoughts about it. No other warnings. Pre-Rayne

_Disclaimer:_ I own nothing or no one. If Jayne insists in stalking me, you should talk to him, not to me.

A/N: English is not my native language, so feel free to point at anything weird you find.

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_It was a legend from Earth-that-was' Amazon – not the warrior women, but the forest. On Earth-that-was once there had been a huge tropical forest called Amazon. In its golden ages, it had been a vast kingdom of trees and freshwater. It had been the last forest to be destroyed before the planet was left behind, the last territory of wild life claimed by men's greed. Through the Amazon forest ran a river of the same name, one of the biggest rivers that had ever existed on Earth-that-was. And it was in the Amazon River that lived Iara._

--

River was starting to get tired of walking in the hot and wet jungle when the path finally came to an end, and she found herself face to face with a river of crystalline water. She could see the bottom of the river, and the flow was gentle but steady. She sighed content and sat by the rocks at the margin to take off her combat boots. They had just finished a relatively easy job in a forest moon, and the captain had given them the day off. Talking with the locals, she had discovered about this nice stream of water just a walk outside the town, and decided to give it a try. The hot sunny day was inviting for a swim, and Mal had promised he would send someone to find her when it was time to go back to the ship. Sensing she was completely alone, River took off her clothes and slowly walked into the water. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It had been a while since the last time she had been allowed to be all by herself, and the soothing sound of the water helped her relax. With her eyes still closed, she dived and let herself be bathed by the tender water.

--

_The ancient indigenous people who had lived in the Amazon forest used to tell stories about her. One of these stories said that Iara had been a beautiful warrior. She had long dark hair and intense dark eyes, and was the best warrior in her tribe. Her brothers were jealous of her, because their father, the leader of the tribe, was always admiring her beauty and her talents. One full moon night, her brothers decided to kill Iara in the jungle. But Iara, being a great warrior and a great tracker, heard them coming and fought for her life. She killed her brothers in self-defense, but she knew her father wouldn't forgive her, so she ran into the forest. Her father followed and captured her, resolute to punish his daughter. He tossed her into the Amazon River and left her to drown in the strong flow. But the fishes brought her back to the surface and Jaci – that was how that ancient people called Earth-that-was only moon – decided to turn Iara into a mermaid._

--

After a long dive, River broke into the surface again, and let her body float with the gentle flow. It was a nice feeling, and she let herself feel the water running around her body. She could barely 

remember the last time she felt this free – nothing to struggle with, nothing to fight against. Just the girl and the water, moving together in one swift motion. Taking a deep breath, she sighed. If only things were always this calm, she could almost feel normal again… But she wasn't a normal girl, and her life would never be normal. The girl had been taken and changed into a weapon, and the weapon was still trying to find a way to become a person again. Running her hand gently through the water, River sank her feet back to the bottom. Normal or not, weapon or not, she was still a person, and no one, not even the Blue Hands, could take that away from her. She was getting better, and she was confident that it was just a matter of time for her to learn how to function like a real person – not the girl she had once been, but a new grown up one. She had had too much blood on her hands to leave it all behind, so she would have to learn how to deal with it. She would be woman.

--

_Iara remained eternally a beautiful young woman and, in the evening, she would sit on a rock by the river and comb her hair. When she felt a man around, she would start to sing gently to draw him in. Once under the spell of Iara, a man would leave anything to live with her under water forever. Iara would seduce men with her beauty and her voice, blinding them to the rest of the world so they would follow her to the bottom of the river, letting themselves be embraced by the sweet death brought by the dark waters. The few who ever saw Iara and came back alive could never get away from the mermaid's charm, and became crazy._

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Jayne stomped foot after foot through the path that leaded to the river. Why in hell he had to be the one to look for the crazy girl? He was having a good time getting wasted in a bar, but Mal had to spoil his fun – like spoiling crew's fun was part of captain-y duties for Mal. Well, maybe it was, or maybe he did it just for his own fun. Whatever it was, it wasn't fair. Not to Jayne, anyway. Gorram jungle was wet and hot as hell, and Jayne growled as his sweat was making his shirt stick to his torso. He was getting closer, and could already hear the sound of the water. He stopped when he heard a splash sound. Shaking his head, he cursed at his own stupidity. Of course the crazy girl was swimming! Why else would she walk all the way here in this stupid weather? He was about to resume his walking when another thought crossed his mind: what if she was swimming naked? A smirk started to form on Jayne's face. Sure he had seen her naked before when she jumped out of that box, but seeing such a fine sight again wouldn't hurt none. Or would it? The girl had a fine body, but that body knew how to kill faster than anything Jayne had ever seen. Oh yeah, _that_ had been definitely a beautiful sight in Jayne's eyes. But it was the kind of beauty Jayne had learned long ago a man should avoid at all costs if he wanted to survive. The beauty of a deadly weapon that should be handled with extra care – and definitely not the kind of trouble Jayne wanted in his life. He shook his head – he knew himself well enough to know that if he ever let his mind follow that track, he would go insane trying to find his way back. Clearing his minds from those thoughts, he grunted and resumed his walk.

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_Those ancient people from the Amazon forest also told the story of Jaguarari, a strong and handsome warrior from the Tuxaua tribe. There was no one in the tribe stronger or better than Jaguarari. He was admired by both men and women. One evening, Jaguarari was fishing when he saw a beautiful naked woman bathing herself and singing softly at the margin of the Amazon River, by a taruma tree. Jaguarari was stunned by her voice and beauty, and fell in love with her immediately. But before he could reach her, she dived and disappeared in the dark waters._

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Reaching the end of the path, Jayne stopped and took into the sight around him. It was just another river like many he had seen before, not a big deal. What really caught his attention was the River-girl. She was laying on a rock by the margin, her feet swinging gently in the water. Her damped hair fell loosely around her bare shoulders, her eyes closed to the world. And she was naked. Naked as the day she was born, naked as the day she jumped out of that box. Naked. And beautiful. Those were pretty much the only words echoing in Jayne's head at the moment. His mind couldn't get passed the fact that he was staring at a beautiful naked wet girl. She was wet and hot as the jungle, and it was beautiful. Wet and hot - that sounded dirty even to Jayne's ears. Before Jayne had time to snap out of his trance, River's eyes flung open and, in a swift movement, she disappeared under the water.

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_After that, Jaguarari went fishing every evening, with the only intention of finding Iara. He always came back home late at night very sad. His mother asked him over and over what was making him so sad, and one day he finally confessed he was in love with the vision he had had at the Amazon River. He said that at night, when he tried to sleep, the only thing he could hear was the inebriant sing of Iara. Hearing his revelation, his mother desperately launched herself at his feet and begged him to stay away from that river._

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Jayne couldn't tear his eyes away from the slender form swimming gracefully under the water, even though he knew he should – that slim form could be the death of him, and he meant that literally. He tried to close his eyes and turn away, but it was pointless. That image was already fixed in his eyes, and he just couldn't get rid of it. And if he was honest with himself – which he rarely was - he didn't want to get rid of it either. He didn't want to get rid of her; he wanted to get to her, plain and simple. Not that his John Thomas was actually paying attention to any of the internal debate that was going on in Jayne's head. And that was definitely not good, for so many reasons he didn't even know where to start. He could hear his ma's voice in his head, chastising him for peeking at a defenseless girl. Well, she wasn't so defenseless; actually, not defenseless at all, but still just a girl. A girl who could read his mind, who probably already knew he was there and thinking about her in a very large number of wrong ways, and hadn't said anything yet. Huh.

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_But Jaguarari could never fulfill that promise, because he was already infatuated. At a full moon night, Iara sang so powerfully that the handsome warrior couldn't resist. He got up and ran to the margin of the river. The water opened in front of him, and Jaguarari disappeared forever in Iara's arms._

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Wet and hot. Under the water, River shivered. That was how Jayne had seen her, and that was exactly how he had made her feel, bringing a need to refresh herself as Jayne's thoughts entered her mind. It was something she had experienced before – lust towards herself - but never this strong. No one had ever made her feel this way and it had never felt this right. Jayne was making her feel like a woman. And she was enjoying it as much as he was enjoying the view. But she didn't want just to _feel like_ a woman, she wanted to _be_ one. She wanted more than what Jayne's fantasies were giving her. She wanted the real thing. Bringing herself to a standing position, she slowly raised her head above the water, staring directly into Jayne's eyes. She held his gaze for a moment, and with a short nod he answered the questions he saw burning in those chocolate eyes. Yes, he would follow her to the bottom of the river. Yes, he would let himself be lost in her arms for as long as she wanted him to, and would make sure they both enjoyed every second. Yes, he would make her a woman.

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A/N: I changed Iara's legend just a bit to fit in the story better (her description in the legends isn't exactly clear, although most of the time she's described as having green eyes; she was tossed in the encounter of waters from the rivers Negro and Solimoes – an encounter of waters that's so strong that it'd be impossible to survive; and Iara is believed to live in any source of freshwater, not only in the Amazon River). But other than that, the legend is pretty much intact.


End file.
